The ASF Sponsorship Program is the way that corporations and individuals can
contribute substantially to the ongoing support of the Foundation. (As distinct
from one-time donations.)

In return, the ASF will officially acknowledge your donation via various methods
appropriate to your sponsorship level, including your logo and link on the
ASF Thanks page, and an official sponsor image to place on
the sponsor's website. (Logo and link subject to ASF approval.)

The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the Apache community of
open-source software projects. The Apache projects are
characterized by a collaborative, consensus based development process, an
open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality
software that leads the way in its field. We consider ourselves not simply
a group of projects sharing a server, but rather a community of developers
and users.

The ASF provides the infrastructure for the projects - the mailing lists,
code repositories, bug tracking systems, etc. These resources are maintained by
a few paid contractors (as well as by large amounts of volunteer effort). This,
in addition to the large costs of bandwidth and server hardware, constitutes
the bulk of the expense of running the Foundation.

By sponsoring the ASF you show your support for our mission and help
sustain a vibrant organization. Sponsorship also shows your support for
Open Source and provides you the opportunity to "give back" to the
community. Finally, since the ASF is non-profit organization, sponsorship
provides attractive tax benefits.

The Apache Software Foundation comprises over 100 top level projects, over
400 active members, over 2000 committers and countless contributors and
users. We are responsible for millions of lines of code and the 35+
servers which make up our infrastructure

We also have the normal business operating expenses which go with any
organization. These include:

Bandwidth costs

Servers and hardware

Legal and Accounting

Normal office expenses

Marketing and PR

Sub-contractors to "fill in the holes" for administrative and secretarial
duties

Your sponsorship will allow the ASF to meet these expenses as well as
expand our capability to maintain our leadership in the developer and Open
Source communities. Funding will allow us to perform pro-active hardware
procurement, enhance our community outreach, sponsor developer hackathons
and user groups, and perform non-code related improvements to projects such
as better documentation and more comprehensive websites

The Apache Software Foundation is a private operating foundation that is
registered as a non-profit, charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3)
of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. This means that, for individuals within
the U.S., donations to the ASF should be tax-deductible. We are not
accountants, so this cannot be trusted as financial advice of any kind, but
hopefully this description will be useful to those who advise you in these
matters. You may view our ruling letter from the IRS acknowledging our
501(c)3 status.

You may also review the latest financial filings and non-profit exemption
application of The Apache Software Foundation in our public
records section. You may also find other helpful information
through
GuideStar
(requires free registration for full access).

If you would like more information about supporting the ASF, please contact
fundraising@apache.org.
Sponsorship donations are handled
differently from standard non-directed donations,
so if you want your
donations to be part of the Sponsorship program (and thus obtain the
benefits of the program), you must coordinate the donation with the
Fundraising team
(fundraising@apache.org).

Your sponsorship will run for one year after the date of receipt of payment.
For this period, we shall display your logo on our thanks
page.

Two months before the end of your sponsorship, we will contact you (via the
same mechanism as was used to arrange the initial sponsorship) requesting
renewal. If renewal has not occurred by the renewal date of the sponsorship,
the ASF may remove the sponsor's logo from the thanks page.

The ASF appreciates donations of any size, and as a US registered 501(c)(3)
corporation, your donation may be tax deductible. If you are interested in
donating to the ASF at a different level, please see our
donation page.